by Peter David
Mueller glanced at Desma, who shrugged. “All right,” Mueller said cautiously. “If that’s your wish. Stay where you are, and we’ll beam you aboard. Bridge to transporter room.”
“Transporter room, aye,” came a brisk female voice.
“Lock on to the signal we’re currently receiving and bring the individual on the other end aboard. I’ll be right down. Arex, with me,” Mueller said briskly. “Hash, take over watch on the sinkhole. Desma, you have the conn.”
Hash moved to the tactical station as Arex headed for the turbolift. Before she walked away, however, Mueller leaned in toward Desma and said, “Good strategy there, Commander.”
“Thank you, Captain,” said Desma, positively beaming as Mueller headed into the turbolift.
ii.
Mueller hadn’t been certain quite what to expect when Keesala beamed aboard the Trident, but it certainly wasn’t remotely close to what she got.
The moment he materialized on the transporter pad, all the soft-spoken, overly polite air vanished, and Keesala came remarkably close to being a complete gibbering wreck.
He practically stumbled as he came off the transporter platform and approached Mueller so quickly that Arex got in between them lest it turn out to be some sort of attack. It quickly became clear that assaulting the captain was about the farthest thing from the visitor’s mind as could possibly be.
“Thank the gods!” Keesala cried out as Arex kept him from getting too close. It wasn’t all that difficult, for Keesala wasn’t exceptionally strong, and Arex’s multiple arms were more than up to the task. “Thank the gods you people arrived! It’s not too late for her!”
“For her,” Mueller echoed. “You mean for—”
“Kalinda, yes. The Thallonian girl.”
“Arex,” and Mueller indicated with a movement of her head that he should stand aside. Arex did so, but he watched Keesala intently lest he make some sort of hostile move. Mueller stepped in close and said, “You admit you have her.”
“Admit it? I would do anything to get rid of her! Her presence courts disaster! You have no idea what it’s like to be the one sane voice in a sea of madmen!”
Believing that extended discussion of a matter this delicate wasn’t appropriate to the middle of the transporter room, Mueller promptly hustled Keesala away to the nearest conference lounge. She settled him into a chair in hopes of taming, to some degree, his extremely jumpy nature. “First things first,” she said. “Is Kalinda unharmed?”
“Completely. At least, she is for the moment. But we’re dealing with exceptionally volatile personalities,” he said. “People who do not take kindly to anyone who tries to gainsay them.”
“And you’re one of those people?”
“Of course! They’ve forced me to…to say things. Do things.” He shook his head, looking despondent.
“If you consider them to be so oppressive,” Arex said thoughtfully in his high-pitched, whispery voice, “it’s strange that they would be willing to let you depart your world and have a private conference with us.”
“Do you think me a complete fool?” demanded Keesala, bristling at the implication. “Do you think that I have at all let on to them what my true feelings are? My life would be forfeit! No, no…they think me entirely on their side. They have no clue where my true loyalties lie, and that is precisely the way I wish matters to remain.”
“Who are ‘they’?”
“A faction. A crazed faction of my people who believe that they are not mere Priatians, but instead the second coming of the Wanderers. They have lost their minds, suffering from wildly inflated egos.”
“But why did they kidnap Kalinda? What was their plan?”
“There was no plan!” Keesala said. “Their encountering her and the man who absconded her was purest happenstance. They saw an opportunity and they seized it. And I…I should have stopped it,” he admitted sadly. “But I did not do so, for I am one and they are many. And a number of them hold far higher rank in the government than I. So I smiled and cooperated as thoroughly as I possibly could. Participated in bizarre mind games and stunts they performed on the girl in order to keep her off balance. Make her think she was seeing…”
“Seeing what?”
“Monsters,” he told Mueller. “Creatures of abomination. All designed to confuse her. To keep her from focusing on escape, or on anything that was potentially inconvenient to us. But even as I aided in these twisted endeavors, I felt my heart sinking on behalf of my people.
“But you’re here now! You can end this!”
“Can you tell us where she is?” Arex demanded.
“Absolutely,” Keesala assured them. “I can provide you with planetary coordinates so that you will be able to pinpoint her location.”
“As soon as we do that,” Arex commented to Mueller, “we can use sensors to lock on to her. Sensor sweeps take no time at all if we know exactly where to look.”
“Thank you for doing such a superb job of apprising me of that which I already know,” Mueller told Arex, who did a remarkable job of covering his chagrin over the gentle rebuke. “And what of you?” she continued. “What will they do to you upon learning that the girl is gone.”
“I will tell them you tortured it out of me,” Keesala assured them.
“We don’t torture captives!” Mueller protested. “For that matter, you’re not even a captive.”
“Yes, but my people do not know that. What, are you concerned over the reputation of your precious Starfleet, Captain?” He sounded amused. “Of what possible consequence is that when compared to recovering a helpless young woman?” Then his tone darkened. “You cannot begin to comprehend what they’ve already done to her.”
“You said she was unharmed.”
“Physically, yes, but I’ve already described to you some of the mental pressures they’ve brought to bear on the girl. In some regards she is already not herself. If you wish to retrieve a young woman who bears at least a resemblance to the one who was taken, then you will allow me to cooperate with you. Frankly, I cannot believe I even have to speak that sentence. Allow me to cooperate with you.”
For a long moment, Mueller studied him. “Mr. Arex, a moment of your time, please. Keesala, please make yourself comfortable.” As Keesala watched them with what was clearly wide-eyed astonishment, the two Starfleet officers stepped out of the conference lounge and into the corridor. They spoke in low voices and every so often, Mueller would nod in acknowledgment as a crew member passed and greeted her. Her attention, however, never wavered from the discussion.
“My instinct,” she said, “is not in love with this.”
“I know what you mean, Captain. I mean, it could be just as he says. He’s appalled by something his fellow Priatians are doing or have done and he wants to set it right.”
“True. All it takes for evil men to succeed is for good men to stand by and do nothing. And perhaps he is simply a good man. On the other hand…”
“What were the odds that we managed to get in touch with exactly the man we needed?”
Slowly she nodded. “Which would indicate that we were steered toward him.”
“But why?”
She leaned back against the wall, her arms folded across her chest. Her mind was racing, but one could never have told from her calm demeanor. “Possibly it’s some sort of trap. But if we don’t go down there…if he provides coordinates and we just beam her up…how devastating a trap can it be?”
“They could have done something to her. Placed a deadly virus within her. Standard transporter and virus scans would detect any sort of explosive device upon her and any obvious illness, but it could be something unknown.”
She nodded. “So we would need to bring her up directly into quarantine. Have her checked out thoroughly.”
“There’s another possibility,” suggested Arex. “Perhaps we simply got here before they had fully in place whatever their plan was in relation to kidnapping Kalinda. Perhaps they weren’t expecting we’d
catch on to them so soon.”
“And now they’re endeavoring to cut their losses? And sending Keesala as the scapegoat to claim that it was simply a small faction of his people rather than a government plan?” She pursed her lips. “That could be.”
“Either way, as long as we get her back and she’s safe, does the why of it make a difference?”
“It does, actually…in the long term. Right now, though, the long term isn’t our concern.”
With that, she walked back into the conference lounge, Arex skittering behind her.
Keesala stood, looking up at them expectantly.
“Can you pinpoint exactly on your planet where she is?” asked Mueller. When he nodded, she said, “All right. Come with me.”
They headed down the corridor, Keesala looking around with great interest at all he saw. “You seem impressed with our technology,” Mueller observed.
“Oh yes. Very much so. You’re most advanced.”
“So would you mind telling me how you developed that gargantuan space vessel that is unlike anything we currently have at our disposal?”
He stopped, stared at her blankly for a moment, and then understood. “Oh. The ship of our ancestors.” He chuckled low in his throat, as if about to relate an amusing anecdote. “That was a standard-sized vessel. Nothing extraordinary about it at all. Your own ship would doubtless have been able to destroy it in a matter of seconds. But my people do have their clever moments. It was a…what would be the phrase you would use? A…magic trick?”
“A magic trick?”
“Yes, Captain. A light field—not even a hard light field—projected around the ship, in a manner not all that different from the way defensive screens are erected. The field created the image of a vast and formidable space vessel around the far more unassuming one. That was what the young fellow who originally absconded with the girl saw. But it was simply an illusion. There is no such ship currently stalking the spaceways…or, if there is, I assure you we had, and have, nothing to do with it.”
They entered the transporter room and Mueller said, “Ensign. Give me a view of Priatia.”
Ensign Patience Halliwell (twin sister to a transporter operator over on the Excalibur) brought the image of Priatia up on her console screen, then stepped aside as Keesala stared at it. As he did so, Arex said, “Transporter room to M’Ress.”
“Bridge, M’Ress here. Go ahead, Arex.”
“Prepare to coordinate sensor scan with transporter room A. Lock into the transporter console so you can scan the area of the planet that you’re about to have specified for you.”
“Got it.”
Mueller nodded in approval. Arex and M’Ress, both time-tossed castaways into an era that wasn’t theirs. Even though there had been some serious bumps and bruises along the way, they had adapted well to their new environment and always worked extremely smoothly together. She couldn’t help but think that they might have made an interesting couple were it not for the fact that they were completely incompatible physically.
“How do I indicate…?” Keesala asked tentatively.
“Just touch the screen itself,” Halliwell told him. “The computer will do the rest.”
“All right,” he said, watching his homeworld turning on the screen. “All right…she’s being held on the continent of Nemosia…the capital city of Cheng…which would put her right about…here,” and he tapped the screen with his finger. Then he let out a surprised “Oh!” as two lines, perpendicular to each other, intersected on the screen and targeted the area he’d just touched.
“M’Ress?” prompted Arex.
“Have the data. Scanning now…”
There was a long pause, perhaps as long as thirty seconds, and then M’Ress’s voice came back triumphantly. “Got a lock! Found an individual with Thallonian bioreadings, no question.”
“Do we know for sure it’s her?”
“Not for sure, no, but it’s a hell of a coincidence if it’s not. Sending coordinates back to you.”
“Captain to sickbay,” Mueller said to the air.
“Sickbay, go,” came back the voice of Doc Villers in her customary brusque manner.
“Ready the quarantine lab. We’re having someone beamed in there in a moment.”
“Thanks for the lengthy heads-up, Captain,” grunted Villers. “We’ll be ready. Sickbay out.”
Mueller turned to Halliwell. “Ensign…?”
“I have the coordinates, Captain.”
“Beam her directly into quarantine.”
“Aye, Captain.” Halliwell nodded as she proceeded to manipulate the controls.
The transporter beams began to glow. The platform lit up and Mueller watched intently as a slender female form began to coalesce. Before it could do so, however, it dissolved once more and, moments later, the familiar whine of the transporter beams ceased.
“Sickbay, this is the cap—” Mueller began to say.
But Villers’s voice overlapped her own. “Captain, this is Villers. We’ve got her.”
“How does she look?”
“Like a confused Thallonian female. Were you expecting anything else?”
“No. I’ll be right down. Mueller out.”
“What about me, Captain?” asked Keesala politely.
“You,” she said, “are going to stay right here with him for the moment,” and he indicated Arex.
“Very well.” He didn’t sound especially perturbed about it…which naturally bothered Mueller all the more.
iii.
By the time Mueller got down to sickbay, Kalinda had apparently gotten over her confusion and was now instead flooded with relief. “Kat!” she called out the moment she saw Mueller, and then promptly restrained herself and corrected, “I mean…Captain Mueller. An honor, as always.”
She didn’t appear any the worse for wear. She was clad in a simple gray jumpsuit rather than her normal Thallonian attire. But she had no marks upon her, didn’t appear thinner or ill in any way. She reached up and tapped the clear wall that stood between her and the rest of sickbay. “May I ask…what the purpose of this is…?”
“Quarantine,” Mueller said. “It’s so…”
“So you can make sure I’m not some sort of carrier of germ warfare,” Kalinda immediately said.
Mueller nodded. “You catch on quickly.”
“Someone in my position has to learn to do that.” Changing gears, she said, “Xyon. Is he all right? Where is he?”
“Back on New Thallon. And from my understanding, not doing particularly well.”
Her hand fluttered to her mouth. “Of course. Because he told them that I was taken away, and they didn’t believe him. Are you taking me straight back?”
“Yes. Doc Villers here can check you over en route and give you a clean bill of health.” She looked at Kalinda askance. “Aren’t you at all curious as to how we found you?”
“Honestly? No. That you found me at all is all I care about. That, and getting as far away from this godsforsaken world as possible.”
“All right,” said Mueller. “We’ll talk later, then.”
“Yes, I’d like that,” and Kalinda smiled a genuinely warm smile.
Mueller returned to the transporter room, lost in thought. When she got there, Keesala looked at her expectantly. “Well?”
“She appears to be in good health. We’ll be checking her over, of course.”
“Oh, of course.” He let out a heavy sigh. “Please understand, Captain…these actions were taken by a group of radicals. They did not think what they were doing, and they pose no threat to the Thallonian Protectorate. I shall find a way to make certain they are dealt with…if, in no other way, by stressing what a close call my people had just now. If you were so inclined, your weaponry could lay waste to my world. I will stress that, and make sure their power is broken. It may take time, but it will happen, I assure you. And now if you would just be so good as to return me to my world…”
Mueller stepped in close to him, lookin
g him up and down, making no effort to hide her suspicion. “Understand something, Keesala. We have a record of your molecular pattern now, since we beamed you up. If something turns out to be wrong with Kalinda…if this is a double cross in any way…we will return here and we will find you and then, sir, you will severely regret the consequences.”
“You know, Captain,” Keesala replied mildly, “in envisioning what you would say before sending me back home, I somehow imagined it would be more along the lines of ‘Thank you.’ ”
“Thank you,” she said icily.
“You’re welcome.”
With that, he stepped over to the transporter platform and up onto it.
“Energize,” said Mueller and, in a shower of light, Keesala was gone. “Captain to bridge.”
“Bridge, Desma here.”
“Take us out of orbit, Executive Officer. Have Gold set course for New Thallon.”
Desma didn’t reply immediately, and for an instant Mueller wondered why. Then she realized: It was the first time she’d felt comfortable enough with Desma to address her by the title—Executive Officer—that she, Mueller, had once held.
“New Thallon, aye, Captain,” Desma said, and then added with indisputable pride in her voice, “Executive officer out.”
“Mission accomplished, Captain?” asked Arex.
She stroked her chin thoughtfully. “I never like to say that, Lieutenant,” she said warily. “It always seems that, when you believe a mission has been accomplished, you’re just begging for unexpected casualties.”
New Thallon
i.
Mackenzie Calhoun strode into the council chamber and was all too aware of every angry eye upon him. It certainly wasn’t the first time in his life that he’d been surrounded by hostility, nor did he ever feel intimidated by such circumstances. Instead it was almost energizing for him.
Behind Calhoun came Zak Kebron. He remained, however, toward the back of the room as Calhoun continued forward. The message was clear: Kebron had Calhoun’s back, but Calhoun wasn’t afraid to face the opposition more or less on his own.